Logic before Violence
by Music Person
Summary: Passion. Nothing could explain what Rico did other than Passion. So why is it so hard to explain to the one he did it for? Kico One-shot Rated T for Eating Disorder (if you think about it technically)


Rico wasn't a very smart penguin. He could rarely form words. His emotions were usually either extremely submissive or blind rage. He loved the thrill of the rage. He loved the rush of the action. Fireworks. Bombs. Explosions.

Passion.

Rico's joy was most closely connected with his rage due to the passion. It felt like a burst of energy in his gut. A fire that would never cease. A light that the greatest darkness could never snuff out.

And he had to give it up.

There was no other way around it. The fire, the explosions, the rage; it had to all go away. Rico didn't understand why. He had gotten by well enough with it all. Many times it helped the team out of their darkest moments. But the explosions and rage never seemed to be enough for him. And Rico had to give it all up.

For Him.

He who would apologize when his own emotions overcame him. He who used logic before action. He who would bring sight to Rico's fits of blind rage. Rico had to do it for him.

Rico stood in the ultra-secret storage unit alone. He checked for the thousandth time that no one was coming into the room. He took in a deep breath, and when he let it go, he breathed out a flamethrower as well. Rico did so again, and a missile launcher came out. Rico performed the action again and again. Everything went away: every weapon, every bit of ammunition, every weight. If it could be used as a weapon, it was gone.

When he was done, Rico stood in the room, looking at the former contents of his stomach. He felt a little woozy, but he figured that was due to him losing most of his lunch in the action. Rico turned toward the door, wanting to get some food back in his stomach. He opened the door, and before he knew it, he was on the ground. All he heard was two gasps before the world went dark. He couldn't see or move, but he could hear.

"Private! Go get Skipper! He should be at Marlene's habitat."

"Yes, Kowalski!" There was the sound of the hatch opening and closing, and then footsteps. Rico felt the sensation of his body being moved for him so he was sitting up.

The next sound to come was Kowalski's voice. "Rico! What happened? What do you need?" Rico still couldn't open his eyes, but he managed to get out, "Fish," very faintly. He heard footsteps again, and then food was being guided down his throat. After he had eaten, he heard footsteps again. He heard a gasp, most likely from Kowalski seeing the room of weapons and items, but Kowalski still said nothing. He just walked back to Rico, helped him stand, guided him to the lowest bunk, and then Rico fell asleep.

The next thing Rico knew, he woke up once again and saw that it was just him and Kowalski. Rico grunted to let his teammate know that he was awake. Kowalski turned from where he was and brought over a bowl of something. He handed it to Rico and simply said, "It's fish soup." Rico cringed. "Don't worry. Private made it. Skipper had no involvement in the cooking at all." Rico smirked, and took the bowl and drank down the contents inside. Rico wanted to go to sleep, but he knew that questions needed to be answered. Kowalski brought over a box to sit on and asked Rico, "Do you feel well enough to explain what's going on?" Rico simply looked over to the room. "I saw what's in there. Private and Skipper haven't. As far as they know you just passed out."

Rico smiled and thought of what had happened. How do you explain it? How do you explain the strange feeling of needing to do that? Needing to empty himself of all the rage in his gut?

And even more, how do you explain it to the person you did it for?

Rico thought of what the root of his feelings came from, and simply said, "Logic before Violence."

Kowalski looked taken aback. Rico felt as though he had done something wrong, but he wasn't sure what. He had said the truth. He had said what he knew Kowalski believed. He had said what may change things between them, make them closer, make them something!

Kowalski sighed, and placed one of his flippers on Rico's. "Why would you start believing that?"

Rico looked down. He couldn't bear to look anywhere else, especially not at the penguin in front of him. He muttered under his breath, barely understandable, "Because of you."

Kowalski lifted Rico's beak with his flipper, making him make eye contact. The tears in the explosive expert's eyes were seconds from pouring over. Rico looked away before Kowalski had the chance to speak. "I do believe that logic comes before violence, but sometimes logic says violence is needed. I do believe that science has the answer to all, but sometimes the answer is an explosion, which is in turn caused by science. They work together. If they don't there is no excitement. Without the two working together, there is no passion."

Rico's head shot up at that word. Passion. There was no better way to explain it. Rico stood up and wrapped the analysist in a giant bear hug. There was no way to stop the tears from coming. A few minutes passed, but it felt like hours with just Rico crying into Kowalski's shoulder. Finally, the crying reduced to a few sniffles. Rico felt much better, but he had no idea where to go from here.

Kowalski told Rico his plan. "You're too weak to swallow everything back down now. We need to get more food in you and build your strength back first. Until then, I'll tell Skipper and Private that I used you as a lab rat and the experiment went wrong. That will explain the fainting, strength loss, and temporary inability to regurgitate weapons. As soon as you're ready, you may swallow everything back down. Until then, the storage unit will remain locked."

Rico almost started crying again. He hugged Kowalski tighter and muttered a barely audible, "Thank you." The two remained in that moment for a while longer, until Kowalski suddenly felt more weight in his arms. Rico started to slip into a blackout once again and his muscles went limp. Kowalski tensed his arms and caught his teammate before he could hit the floor. However, they were left in an awkward position of their chests being next to each other and their beaks almost touching. Both stood wide-eyed and breathless in a moment of shock. Neither penguin knew what came over them, but Rico used his last burst of energy to push himself up as Kowalski leaned over. For just a moment, their beaks touched. It continued into a kiss, with neither leading nor following.

Rico felt an explosion inside himself. The burst of energy that he had often seen from bombs and fireworks became an emotion inside of him. Rico had felt the feeling before with rage leading into his joy, but this time there was no rage. There was joy, but joy didn't describe the experience overall. There was only one word fit for such a feeling.

Passion.


End file.
